Thiefshipping Oneshots & Drabbles
by Sesen
Summary: Just a set of thiefshipping stories of various themes and lengths. Ratings and summaries are inside.
1. Distractions

Summary: Bakura realizes that taking a class with Marik may not have been the wisest decision.

Rating: T

* * *

**Distractions**

The tutoring room was located in the basement of the campus's history building, where all the teacher's offices were. Bakura had never been in the basement of any building and had thought it might be interesting, with lots of high-tech equipment or free coffee (which was liquid gold to any university student).

But no, it was similar to all of the other floors he'd been to: academic and boring. There weren't any lockers or classrooms, though, just hallways full of closed doors.

At the very end of the hall there was an open door and a sign scribbled on a piece of torn-out notebook paper that said _History: Free Tutoring_. It had an arrow pointing to the room. Bakura did not want to spend three extra hours a week being tutored, but he was currently getting a C- in his Ancient Greek and Roman History class and his teacher had promised to raise his grade by a full letter if he attended tutoring for the remainder of the semester.

Bakura paused before entering the room, but only for a second. Might as well get this over with.

It wasn't even his fault. The C minus. No, that was completely the fault of Marik Ishtar. Also the president of the university. See, Marik and Bakura had been taking history at the same time but in two separate classrooms. And then the president made the decision to renovate the entire third floor of the history building, where Marik's class was held. While the renovations were being completed Marik's history class had to temporarily join the second floor history class. And which history class was that? The same one Bakura was in, of course.

Bakura had been doing just fine in history up till that point. Well, he hadn't been acing the class exactly, but he wasn't getting a C minus, either. And then Marik joined his class and it all went downhill from there.

Bakura would be taking notes diligently (sometimes) or he'd at least be listening to what the teacher was saying, and then he'd see Marik out of the corner of his eye. He sat across the aisle from Bakura, kind of diagonal to him, and Bakura had a perfect view of the boy. Marik would subconsciously twirl a strand of blonde hair around his finger while listening to the professor or bite his lip in concentration, and it could be pretty cute.

Marik had a very expressive face and was therefore amusing to watch when class got boring. If Marik didn't know the answer to a test question he'd furrow his brow and sometimes even make a face at the paper, as if that would help him out. When the teacher explained some of the methods the ancient Greeks used to kill their prisoners, Marik's face would look equal parts fascinated and disgusted and he'd fidget around in his chair, as if he were the one on trial to be executed.

Then there were the little inside moments between Marik and Bakura. Once the teacher made a remark about how the Romans were the most advanced of the ancient nations, "second best to none, except perhaps to the ancient Egyptians." Marik and Bakura's eyes met across the room and they shared a smile.

And Bakura would be lying if he didn't admit that sex was part of it, too. It was one thing for him to daydream about the things he'd like to do to Marik that night when his boyfriend was off somewhere on campus, busy with his own classes. But when the object of his fantasies was sitting right there in the same room, it could be rather difficult to drag his mind back to ancient Roman military tactics.

Conclusion: It was a bad idea for lovers to take the same class.

The problem didn't end there, though. Since Marik and Bakura were in the same class it would make sense for them to study together, right?

Bakura realized he was getting behind in history exactly one day before the midterm and two weeks after Marik had joined the class. Marik and Bakura had decided to have a joint study session and were lying on their stomachs on the floor with notes and highlighters and textbooks sprawled out all around them. Bakura knew he and Marik had gone into the study session intending to study their asses off, for hours if they needed to.

For extra motivation, Marik had suggested that for every hour they studied they could take a break and fool around for five minutes. Marik specified that this could include kissing, touching or going even further, as long as they were back in Study Mode once the five minutes were up. It sounded like a decent plan to Bakura.

They studied diligently for an hour and Bakura was deep in concentration when Marik let him know their first hour had passed. He abandoned his notebook and pen and crawled over so that he was right beside Bakura. Marik put his arm around Bakura's slim figure and drew him close, then pressed his lips to the back of Bakura's pale neck. He closed his eyes and breathed in the sharp scent of Bakura's shampoo.

Bakura was a little surprised at the interruption.

"It's already been an hour? That went fast."

Bakura could feel Marik's breath on the nape of his neck as he laughed.

"Never thought I'd hear you say that an hour spent studying went by quickly. Are you becoming a nerd like me?"

Bakura flicked his study sheet away from him with disdain.

"Not a chance," he said.

He turned around so that he was lying on his back, staring up at Marik's face. They leaned together and started kissing softly, trying to keep the pace slow.

"The couch is probably more comfortable," Marik said, breaking away for a precious few seconds.

"But…" Bakura started to protest, but Marik quickly glanced at the cell phone that lay beside him.

"We still have three minutes," he said.

So the two of them relocated to the couch, where things started to heat up. Marik, being the organized planner that he was, had set his phone timer to go off after precisely ten minutes were up. Okay, so he had added an extra five minutes to their time limit, big deal— didn't they deserve it? They were hardworking college students.

The phone alarm started vibrating after ten minutes were up, according to plan. Unfortunately, by this time Marik and Bakura were making so much noise with their own "activities" that they didn't hear the buzzing until well after their agreed-upon time had passed.

"So much for five minutes," Bakura said 25 minutes later. He was lying snuggled up to Marik on the couch, and both were spent.

"Marik, this was a terrible plan. This may even go into the records as one of your worst plans ever."

"Right below all our plans to kill the pharaoh?" Marik asked, unsure if he wanted to venture into this territory but unable to stop himself regardless. But Bakura was in a good mood.

"Yeah, right below those," he agreed, then yawned. "Shouldn't we get back to studying?" he asked.

Marik nodded but made no move to sit up or extract himself from Bakura's arms.

"Mm… kinda hungry," Marik confessed. "We should take a little break and go get something to eat. Do you feel like sushi tonight? A sushi shop just opened around the corner and I heard it's pretty good."

And so Bakura agreed and they went out to get sushi and by the time they arrived back home Marik was in a seductive mood again and they ended up going to bed early but staying up late. No more studying was done that night.

These memories from the past couple of weeks flitted through Bakura's mind as he stood outside the tutoring room.

_Stupid Marik, _thought Bakura, although a pesky voice in the back of his mind let him know that he was the stupid one. After all, hadn't Marik been able to cram for the test at the breakfast table that morning and still get a 95 percent on the midterm? Hadn't Marik always been a pro at remembering names and dates and terms? Bakura could only ever remember facts that held a special interest to him, unless he put in a lot of effort.

And, in the end, wasn't Bakura the one almost getting a D?

_I'm going to kill that goody-two-shoes twat, _thought Bakura as he walked into the tutoring room.

The only person in the room was a woman who sat at a round table covered entirely with papers. She had a red pen in her hand and appeared to be grading papers. She looked up at Bakura over a pair of reading glasses when he entered the room.

"I'm here for history tutoring, I'm in Ancient Greek and Roman History," Bakura said.

The lady nodded, her eyes already back on her paperwork.

"We have a new assistant tutor here that will be working with you. He usually tutors in math but we needed more tutors and since he is also taking the history class we decided he would be a good match for the job."

The lady looked up and misread Bakura's surprised expression.

"Oh, don't worry. Even though he's not a history major he's an excellent tutor. Quite smart, in fact he's already a better tutor than about half of our professors. Hold on, I'll get him for you."

And then she said a word Bakura had really been hoping to avoid hearing for the next two hours.

"Marik!"

And then Marik appeared in the doorway from another room, holding a stack of papers and looking completely innocent and unruffled.

"Hi." Marik handed the stack of papers to the woman and nodded at Bakura.

"Are you the 3:00 history student?"

Bakura nodded mutely. He looked back at the woman, who was smiling at Marik as if she were a proud mom.

"You're in good hands," she promised Bakura, and he could have sworn he saw a hint of a smile flicker across Marik's face before his poker face returned.

The lady motioned to a tiny office behind the first tutoring room.

"You guys can use that room. I'll be at my desk grading papers if you need me. Oh, and feel free to close the door if you want. That way you won't have to worry about distractions."

That was so ironic Bakura almost laughed. Luckily he had about as much experience as Marik at feigning innocence, so he maintained a neutral expression. It was weird being so formal around Marik, as if they were strangers who merely happened to go to the same university (as if they _hadn't _spent last night exchanging body fluids until one in the morning).

"Follow me," Marik said.

They walked into a tiny room and sat down across from each other at a small brown table. Marik rolled the sleeves of his white button-down shirt up and grabbed the history textbook as well as a couple other books on the same subject. He swiped his bangs out of his face and then started to rearrange everything on the desk: books, papers and pens, worksheets, study guides, even the history syllabus. Once everything was neatly organized, Marik clasped his hands together and looked off into space.

"So, I was thinking we could tackle this chronologically. It seems as though you were doing fine in history at the beginning and only started having problems when we got through maybe seventy, eighty years of history. We could start off from there. At first I thought it might be easier to separate the Greek and Roman history, but they are so intertwined that wouldn't make much sense. Instead I thought we could…"

In the back of Bakura's brain he was impressed that Marik had gone to so much trouble just to tutor him for a few measly hours a week. It seemed that he had thought the whole process through and had even gone to the trouble of tracking down extra books on the subject. Somehow, Marik's obvious competence for this job only served to annoy Bakura more.

But he couldn't really be mad, not at Marik, who was too endearing with all the care he put into trying to seem professional and grown-up. Although he personally thought that Marik was a little too good-looking for the role of "assistant history tutor." He could imagine hoards of girls (hey, maybe even a guy or two) intentionally doing poorly in their history classes for the sole purpose of being sent to Marik, History Tutor. And he wouldn't blame them. Even in his academic attire Marik looked good, with his white shirt bringing out his bronze skin and his lavender eyes that sparkled under even the most unflattering fluorescent lighting. Right now he was wearing a skinny black tie with his shirt and Bakura imagined yanking him down by the tie and kissing him hard. He almost wished that Marik was a real teacher, just for a day, so Bakura could mouth off in his class and have to stay late with him after school. Then Marik would have to show him the "consequences" for misbehaving in class….

"And then that would catch us right up to where we are now, right?" Marik finished.

…

"Bakura?"

…

"Bakura, have you heard anything that I've said?!"

Bakura had been busy fantasizing about what kind of consequences Mr. Ishtar would come up with (they involved some masking tape and a ruler) when Marik's voice broke through to him.

"Yes," Bakura said quickly.

Marik gave him a hard stare, knowing he was lying.

Bakura sighed. He might as well just throw in the towel with his history class. Because if Marik was his tutor, there was no way he was going to pass.

* * *

AN: So here's the first of what I hope will be a series of thiefshipping drabbles and oneshots. The context of this story was pretty vague, but the stories in this collection will take place post-series, with Marik and Bakura living as a [secret] couple in modern-day Egypt. I might reference the Egyptian culture in some of these, but others (like this one) can really take place anywhere.

My goal is to have a new chapter out every week... let's see how long I can keep that up.


	2. Textual Problems

Summary: Text messaging can be both a blessing and a curse.

Rating: T

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**Textual Problems**

_Bzzt. Bzzzzt. _

Marik shifted position in his seat as his phone vibrated in his back pocket. He shot a quick glance at his professor, who at the moment had his back turned, explaining a complex equation on the board. Marik tried to use the math he'd learned thus far at the university to calculate the chance of being caught if he were to take out his phone right now.

The x variable would be would be the length of time it took him to read the text message; other students' questions or distractions would be the y variable…

He could almost hear Bakura's voice mocking him in his mind. _You are such a nerd,_ it said.

He had to admit his brain was in major math mode right now. A tiny break couldn't hurt. Marik checked to make sure he could still see the back of his professor's bald head and then slid his phone out of his pocket. YOU HAVE 1 NEW MESSAGE, his phone informed him. Marik pushed "enter" and read the message, which was—of course— from Bakura.

"Watching Sherlock and eating a banana split. How's math?" the message read.

_Rubbing it in my face, that jerk, _thought Marik. He'd had to take Engineering Calculus for his major and the only time it was offered was from 6:45-8:00 at night. Marik was usually the most conscientious of students, but even he had trouble paying attention this late in the evening.

He sighed and shifted, picking up his pen. He would force himself to pay attention now, if for no other reason than to prove that he wouldn't let Bakura get to him. His professor had turned back around at this point and had moved on to a new concept. Everyone was taking notes quickly, trying to catch everything the teacher said before it slipped through the air, forgotten. The professors here never seemed to use the board or otherwise write anything down so the students were left to their pens and papers and memories.

_Bzzt. Bzzzzt. _

Oh geez. What did Bakura want this time? He was probably out discovering new ways to enjoy himself/be lazy. Marik couldn't afford to take out his phone a second time… but he found himself reaching for his back pocket nonetheless. Bakura had that kind of effect on him.

Had any of the other students in the class been watching Marik when he opened the second message, they would have had a comical sight to behold. Marik's eyes shot open and he almost dropped his phone; luckily he managed to keep ahold of it and then slide it quickly back into his pocket. He let his blonde hair fall over his slightly red face as he picked up his pen, poising it over the notebook though he wasn't writing anything.

Bakura had apparently decided that now was a good time to start sexting Marik. He had snapped a picture of himself draped over their brown couch in the living room, wearing nothing but a white sheet that almost matched the color of his skin. He lay sprawled out on his back, his legs spread out as far as the couch would allow. The sheet covered the area between his legs but left little else to the imagination. One hand was tucked behind his head and he had his tongue out, licking a maraschino cherry that had probably topped his banana split. Marik knew Bakura was parodying the countless amounts of girls who posed in provocative pictures, but he found himself turned on nonetheless.

_Bakura_, he mentally growled. Bakura would pay for this. Normally Marik would have fallen back on his traditional plan of revenge—teasing Bakura, denying him sex—but he found that he wasn't in a very celibate mood.

"I am going to do so many things to you tonight," Marik quickly texted back. Somehow he doubted his "threat" would discourage Bakura.

Marik had been listening to his professor and taking notes like a good student for approximately 23 seconds when he got another text message.

_Oh for the love of God_.

Marik took out his phone for the third time, though he vowed not to open any more pictures. However, instead of finding the expected text message from Bakura he found one from Bashir, one of Odion's friends. Marik thought Bashir was an ok guy, but he was confused about why someone he didn't even know all too well was texting him.

He opened the text. "I think you messaged the wrong person," it read. Marik blinked. It took him a couple seconds to figure out what his acquaintance was saying. And then understanding hit him like a tidal wave.

_Shit shit shit_. Marik went to the folder on his phone that held all of his "Sent" messages, and lo and behold, there was the latest text he had meant to send to Bakura—he had sent it to Bashir. He had been texting so quickly he must have accidentally hit Bashir's name, which was right above Bakura's on his contact list.

"_I am going to do so many things to you tonight_."

Shit!

Marik was busy trying to simultaneously figure out how to fix this situation and pretend that he was paying attention when he felt his phone's dreaded vibration. Careful to hide his phone behind his notebook, he looked at the message. It was from Bashir again. Marik stared at it for a moment before steeling himself and opening it.

"If that was meant for your roommate, you should go easier on him" he had written. He had added a smiley face afterwards as a sort of apology that he was telling his friend's brother what to do.

Marik sighed and ran a hand through his hair, relieved beyond belief. Bashir just thought the two roommates were messing around with each other. He glanced up briefly and gave a silent prayer of thanks that Odion's friends were so clueless about innuendo.

After his heartbeat had slowed a bit, Marik sent a text to Bashir, apologizing for bothering him and mentioning something about how he had been threatening to attack Bakura if he didn't pick up his share of the cooking and chores.

Crisis averted.

"Any questions?"

Startled, Marik looked up. The clock informed him that he only had one minute of class left. It looked like many of the students wanted to ask a question, but it was too late to ask now. Marik was fairly certain his professor did this on purpose.

When no one answered, his professor went back to his desk. "Ok, have a good evening. Don't forget we have a quiz on Monday."

As everyone in the class began packing away their things, Marik had two thoughts.

The first thought was, _I am going to fail this quiz._

The second was, _This is going to make a great story to tell Bakura._


	3. Just Out of Reach

Summary: Bakura thought the beach would be the perfect place to seduce Marik... apparently not.

Rating: T

* * *

**Just Out of Reach**

"Come on, Ishtar, have a little fun!"

Marik looked up to find a bucket's worth of water sailing his way. Before he could think of moving—crash, the water was cascading over his hair and down his body. And it was cold.

"You idiot!" Marik dove into the river that he had been hoping to avoid for at least another half hour. In the dense water he tried to run after Bakura, who looked like he was having the time of his life.

Odion stood off watching them from a distance.

"Does it seem strange to you that Marik's friend still calls him 'Ishtar?' They've been living in the same apartment for almost a year now," Odion observed. Ishizu didn't look up from her novel to answer.

Bakura thought it was deliciously ironic to call his lover by his impersonal last name, especially in front of Marik's siblings.

_How could you insinuate that we have anything beyond a platonic relationship, I don't even call him by his first name!_

_Ishtar and I live together for the sake of convenience. Yes, we both like girls. No, Ishtar and I did not fuck on your bed yesterday evening, right on top of the new turquoise sheets that you're so proud of. _

(They didn't, to be clear. Fuck on Ishizu's bed. But Bakura had every intention of persuading Mark to do so before this mini vacation with the Ishtar family was over).

Bakura put up a half-hearted chase for a minute and then he let Marik catch him. Before coming on this vacation he had made a deal with Marik that there would be very little touching because Marik was too paranoid to get it on when Ishizu and Odion were sharing the same vacation house. This was the third day of their vacation. Bakura was in need of some physical contact.

"Ahh!"

Marik had lunged at Bakura too hard and they went tumbling backwards into the water together.

Marik was the first to rise to the top, spluttering and trying to blink the water from his eyes. Bakura resurfaced soon after, coughing up what felt like a gallon of water. They both looked like drowned rats. It wasn't sexy.

After they had regained their composure (and the ability to breathe, in Bakura's case), Marik and Bakura looked at each other.

Marik's particular expression might better be described as a glare in this case.

"What's wrong with you, Ishtar? You're the one who slammed into me."

Marik just rolled his eyes and began walking out of the water. Bakura was annoyed; Marik didn't seem to be picking up any of the come-hither vibes he was trying to send off. Maybe dumping a bucket of cold Nile River water on Marik hadn't been a great plan… Bakura was unsure since Marik was the one who had most of the experience in the "how to seduce your lover" department. Maybe he needed to change tactics.

Bakura emerged from the water looking like a ghost or a snowy white angel compared to the dark-skinned Egyptians on the beach. His suntan lotion would need some reapplying soon. Bakura walked over to the little picnic basket where Odion and Ishizu had been sitting since their arrival. He motioned at the tube of sunblock. "Mind if I use some?"

"Go ahead," said Odion.

Bakura poured a liberal amount of the thick lotion onto his hands and began applying it to his face and arms. He realized that he would have a hard time covering his back with the goo, and he smiled.

"Ishizu, a little help here?" he asked sweetly.

She glanced up at him. "Marik can do it." It was a well-known fact that Ishizu only tolerated his presence for Marik's sake, and just barely.

_Her suggestion, not mine,_ Bakura thought as he called Marik over from where he was sitting on a dock.

"Would you mind terribly?" Bakura asked Marik with a smirk, holding out the tube of lotion and turning around.

Marik faltered, but only for a second.

"Sure."

He squeezed a bit of the off-white lotion onto his hand and began applying it to Bakura's back, mostly in the middle and down across his shoulder blades, where Bakura would have a harder time reaching. He worked quickly and didn't allow his fingers to linger on Bakura's warm flesh a second longer than necessary.

"That good?"

"Yeah, thanks." Bakura was disappointed. Normally Marik got a thrill out of testing just how far they could push their flirting in public before other people began to notice they were more than friends, but around his siblings he was totally square. He must really not want them to know.

Hmm, maybe he should take his seductive self a bit further away from Odion and Ishizu and see if Marik would loosen up then. He gave the beach a quick once-over, pretending to be admiring the beautiful weather. Squinting, he thought he could see a rather secluded area behind a cove of palm trees.

"Anyone want to come fishing with me?" Bakura asked, picking up the fishing pole and holding it behind him like he had been a fisherman in his previous life. Bakura figured that fishing was about as manly and straight as a guy could get.

"I'll come, I guess," Marik said.

"I'll pass," said Odion, which Bakura had hoped for.

"Okay, did you see where the bait was? I thought it was next to you, Odion…"

"I have it," Ishizu interjected. She was standing up suddenly, and she held the pail of bait, although she made no motion to give it to Bakura. She started leading the way to the cove of trees, trusting the boys to follow along behind her. Marik and Bakura gave each other a look before Marik shrugged and started walking after her. Bakura shook his head. _Cockblocked by Ishizu! What next? _

He followed behind Ishizu and Marik like a sulking child. Suddenly all his enthusiasm for fishing seemed to have faded, but he couldn't back out now because that would be too suspicious. He was starting to reconsider this notion of the supposed idyllic family vacation. _His _idea of the perfect vacation would be just him and Marik and their empty apartment, no jobs or classes (or any of Marik's bloody family) to get in the way.

Bakura caught up to the Ishtars finally and they fished for about twenty minutes before deciding to call it quits. All of them had come fishing for ulterior motives: Marik and Bakura to try to steal some alone time and Ishizu… well, Bakura didn't want to ponder the reason he thought she came. Something to the ring of _I want to keep an eye on my younger brother to make sure he doesn't fancy his roommate. _

As long as Marik didn't suspect this himself and they kept their hands off each other in front of Ishizu, they should be fine.

A rumble of thunder interrupted their thoughts, and Ishizu stood up and glanced at the sky.

"We should get going," she said.

Marik stood up a little too quickly. "Don't want to get caught in a storm," he agreed, even though rain was a rare event. He must have been even more bored with this fishing expedition than Bakura.

Bakura pulled his line out of the water and worked on untangling the bait from the end of his fishing pole. He heard Ishizu giggle and he looked up to see Odion in the distance, running around trying to catch the picnic basket that the wind was blowing around.

"I better go help him," she said, and just like that she was gone.

Marik brushed some sand off the back of his shorts and looked up after Ishizu. "I should go help them too," he said. He smiled as he watched both his sister and brother run back and forth after their picnic basket. But he made no move to follow them.

"Well, I think you should help _me_," Bakura said. This wasn't one of Bakura's less-than-subtle invitations; his fishing line looked tangled beyond repair. Marik walked up to Bakura and took the line.

"Let me try to fix it. Damn, was this thing caught in a hurricane? I couldn't get mine this tangled if I tried…" he blathered on while Bakura watched his cute mouth say words.

It dawned on Bakura that when Marik wanted something from Bakura he didn't wait for it or dance around leaving little clues about what he wanted. He just went for it.

Bakura leaned down to Marik and stopped him mid-blather by kissing him. Marik jumped and took an instinctive step back, surprised. He looked at Bakura's demanding face and scanned the beach quickly to make sure no one was watching.

Once assuring that the coast was clear, a small smiled touch his lips and he leaned in and kissed Bakura. The kiss was simple for a moment or two before Bakura started nipping at Marik's bottom lip with sharp incisors. Marik opened his mouth and their kiss deepened. Marik dropped the fishing pole so that he could hold Bakura properly, and Bakura held Marik with one hand in his hair and the other right over his ass. He gave Marik's ass a squeeze, and suddenly Marik seemed to snap out of the little romantic trance he was in. He pushed Bakura back and straightened himself up.

_Damn it. _

"We can't," Marik said, and it was final.

Bakura nodded but didn't fully accept the end to his little fantasy.

"What am I supposed to do about my situation?" Bakura asked, and he stuck out his hips to clarify his statement.

Marik looked down at the half-formed bulge in Bakura's swimming trunks and took a step so that he was standing right up to Bakura. He put his arms around Bakura's neck and brought his mouth right up to Bakura's ear.

For a fleeting, stupid second Bakura actually thought Marik was going to help him with his 'situation.'

"I hear cold water is supposed to help with that," Marik whispered, and Bakura caught a glimpse of a devious smile on Marik's face before Marik sent him flailing backwards into the water.

Bakura landed on his butt with a loud splash. He looked up at Marik.

"That's for earlier," he said.

Marik smiled that sleepy, sexy smile of his and the sun kissed the top of his head, and for a second Marik looked like a beautiful Beach Angel, despite his rumpled, sandy attire. And then Marik tossed his head back and laughed a loud, obnoxious hyena laugh, which totally ruined the moment. He left Bakura still emerged in the shallow water, scowling after him.

Even on vacation Marik and Bakura were up to their usual games. Bakura wasn't the type to obsessively keep score, but if he did the score would look something like this:

Bakura: 0

Marik: 1

_As usual. _


End file.
